As I arrived back at the warehouse, I paused, and wondered again why no one had perished on the docks... not a single body in sight - only in the city itself.... the Market Square and presumably beyond... as if they'd all truly run inland... I considered again the possibility of a huge wave crashing ashore - but that didnt fall in line with the cargo waiting to be loaded into ships. It would have been wet... the whole town wouldnt have drowned like that - there was no indication of drownings...
I rubbed my temples a bit to alleviate the headache that promised to overwhelm me if I didnt stop thinking about this. Instead I opened the warehouse door and called for the jit who came scrambling down from somewhere in the rafters - dust and cobwebs hanging from his fur.. I smiled and brought him out into the sunshine for a bit - since no one was around it wouldn't hurt to let him run around.
He immediately sought to please me and began investigating the palleted cargos looking for shiny things like he was trained to do. He was seeking his reward of a sweet fruit piece and I opened a crate of tospits nearby to ensure he got one. I wasnt sure if shiny things were going to help us anymore... if there was no one to sell them to, and no one to trade them to... they were -as the Man in white had said... pretty useless now.
I sat on a bench and sectioned the fruit saving part for the small creatures reward and imbibing in the tart flesh myself. Chewing slowly as I considered all that had transpired today.
Who was that Outlaw anyway... and why didnt he introduce himself... and how could it be that only two of us existed. And how could he eat like a king among all of this? stomach of steel I guess. Where was he going? He was obviously smart in collecting food - but how long would that last? were most of the animals dead too? I still didnt let go of the possibility that the water was poisoned... maybe the Outlaw would, too, succumb to that fate... maybe I should have warned him!
My shoulders visibly dropped as I went into a darker place in my mind... If he died too... there would really only be me. I didnt like this line of thinking and again shoved it out of my head. I decided to think maybe all of this... was some kind of bad dream... something needed to be reset... my head was playing tricks on me. I decided then that I'd call the jit back - go inside - and start sorting through my stuff... if this was all a bad dream I needed to be ready to leave on the first boat out of here.
